The Reasonings (page 121)
Also, do not lend an ear to your whims and fancies, nor expect something that should be given by a community to come from every member of that community. Expecting something from every member of a community causes the denial or rejection of the result. This is a point that requires close attention.
If you want to understand the reality of anything, do not condition yourself. Just listen to your human qualities freely without thinking about anything. It is not easy but we have to try. If someone says that I do not believe in any religion and he presents something then you will not take it seriously. Take a free attitude: “let me see what you say”. You should judge what someone says not according to the requirements of your religion but according to your human qualities. Do you really agree or not? Can you really confirm it or not? We have to educate ourselves. To be free is difficult not only for religious people but also people who claim to be against religion.
- We must watch out ourselves for whatever we are!
Do not assume the attitude of “intentional opposition”. If something does not make sense to you, say that it does not make sense to me. Conditioning means that I am not going to approve what religious people talk about. Even scientist says that I am not going to give any reference to anything metaphysical (something not within the universe) or transcendental being because I can only bring something within the universe into lab and investigate it. They do not accept logical conclusions i.e. If there is an action, there must be an actor.
A priori conclusions (i.e. logical conclusions) do not need to be brought into the lab. Can you find the Maker of this laptop? She might be dead. But you know that there must be a Maker, although you have not seen her. If someone says that I have seen her, she is a beautiful Engineer who made it, then that is not only a logical conclusion, but a conclusion based on observation. Here, there is an empirical observation and must be brought into the lab. Anything logical must be approved by “human conscious” as a human being. That is what I am and I cannot go against myself.
The builder of this building is not here. Is that a logical conclusion? Yes. The bricks cannot make the building. A conscious being must have made the building. That is what we understand from our experiences of the world. Look at a cat. The particles of the cat cannot make the cat because they are not conscious being which have freewill to choose and arrange.
Belief does not say that I have seen something which is called God making the tree. Then scientists say let me see and put it under lab. We do not use language that starts with God as if you have seen it. Example, see below:
- Proving God: God has created the universe.
- Denying God: I have not seen God making the universe.
- Both are equally wrong methodologically.
People confuse because the scripture which claims to be the speech of God says that God created the universe. What people do: “We have good faith in the scripture because it is the word of God and scripture says that God created the universe”. Creator has the right to say that It did it but you, as the reader have not seen God doing it. You do not have the right to say this. Take the sentence as a guide from the Creator for you and investigate: “Is it possible that this thing needs a Creator with certain qualities and it is called God?” That is why we say there must be a Maker, not “the Maker”.
- I am not observing It and then logically concluding It.
A priori conclusions do not need evidence. Example: You come home and find food ready on the table. Someone must have prepared this food because it cannot happen on the table by itself. Have you seen someone making it? So how can you believe? You do not have to prove it in an empirical sense and logical conclusions do not need empirical experience. Scripture is like a teacher and you need to confirm it for yourself.
Whatever the teacher, (God, Prophet or Professors) teaches you, yes you are learning what you did not know but after you learn you are just discovering what is in your potentiality. That is, potentiality is developing. Example: I am learning how to ride a bike. It is within my potentiality but I need to discover by doing exercises.
- Human potentiality is the basis for everything.
God’s guidance is a teacher. It helps you to discover what is within your potentiality and you are learning it. If something is not within your potentiality, can you really learn it? No. It then does not mean anything for you because there is no detector taking it and developing it. Human potentiality looks like a seed, what is encoded in the seed, only that comes out in the form of a tree. You cannot get what is not encoded in the tree.
Belief system is very simple. The difficulty is that we think that we must believe in something superficial. Whatever imagination we use, we cannot go out of the physical world. Dreams are created, and thoughts are created. We are given the ability to make logical conclusions, that is what we are. We are left with freewill. By using freewill, we can discover what is within us. If someone does not attempt to ride a bicycle, can s/he ride a bicycle? No. But s/he is potentially able to. You have freewill to choose to practice it or not to practice it. When we do not practice it, the potentiality dies away.
If you put the seed in a certain condition, whatever it has develops such as a cherry tree or apple tree for example. If you do not put it, it dies away. Seed does not have freewill. As a human being, I need to use my freewill. Sow yourself in the soil and do exercises, practice and exhort yourself.
Human beings can only get benefits through their striving; it means exercise and use your freewill. People make lots of complications and require you to believe blindly. Belief matters are so simple. Do not condition yourself intentionally to oppose an idea.
- Use yourself freely.
“Do not lend an ear to whims and fancies”. Whims and fancies are not in our potential engrained qualities. These are accepted, gained, adopted, assumed ideas, habits and attitudes because of not being careful of what we are learning and hearing whether they are true or not just following the civilization or following your uncontrolled behavior and conclusions. Example: I do not want to do that. Not using your human qualities and deciding on things. Not because my in-built human nature does not like it, but it is assumed and adopted.
- Fancy means not real but artificial not according to your nature but, gained, accepted.
Comment: Why is it in human nature to be drawn to human fancies?
That is the freedom. It is a possibility to go one way or another. But it is already there. That is how I am made. Whoever made me, sets me free to choose. If something comes to me, I have to reason if it is legitimate or not. Example: new fashion is to have ripped jeans. Ask: Why am I doing that? It was not the fashion six months ago. We mostly follow the society like herds and we are free to do that. We have freewill to question it.
Fashion is for consumption and humanity is lost. People who have capital make money, but we are losing our human capacity and freewill and we will just be controlled by other people. Just follow the fashion and become slave of the civilization. Shepherd is happy when the sheep obeys.
Comment: If you get satisfaction from your human fancies, that is given existence, isn’t it?
Consciousness says that I should not do it. Example: smoking is harmful. Young people still do it knowing it. Being aware that following this fancy is not natural to me, that is how I am not created for to follow this, but I have the freewill to put into practice or not.
Understanding is different from putting into practice. If you are addicted to something, it may go beyond your freewill. Although, it is curable, but it is difficult to get out. That is how we are. The Creator is showing that is His order.
- If you do something without using and being aware of your freewill, then it becomes an addiction and a habit. Hence, take precautions from the beginning. Do not approach the wrong that you are aware that it is wrong. Do not get closer to it. It is all about using your freewill.
We are given all senses that are working freely. Brain is working freely, and heart is working freely for example and that is not left to me. What is left to me is freewill. Any subject that you cannot solve, you need to refer to freewill and then you shall solve it. But you have to be aware that I am a conscious being. Do not deny that. You know that.
“Do not expect anything from the member of the community that represents certain ideas”. If you want to know what Islam or Christianity is for example, do not look at the community. Because community has many members and they all practice their freewill. Do not judge any ideology by looking at the followers of that ideology. Example: If a man says something and he is a drinker, you do not listen to him because he is drunk. His being drunk is different from what he says.
If you want to understand any ideology or religion, do not look at the community or check the members of the community. Many people look at Muslim communities and if they have nice friends there, then they become closer to their friend’s religious affiliation and even becomes a Muslim if s/he does not have a certain belief system. That is frightening because these friends are not to be his/her friends forever. Let’s say that s/he goes into another Muslim community and finds nasty people. As a result, s/he will become disappointed and feels that this was misleading. “I did not know this was a corrupt religion”. People get excited and embrace Islam but soon leave it. They claim to believe in Islam because of the membership of the community but they did not know what Islam is.
We must learn the ideology of what is presented to us. Do not look at the man that presents it to you. Famous saying in the bible by Jesus: A tree is known by its fruits. It is applied wrongly to judge about a religion through a community. If a person says I believe that I should not smoke but smokes. His claim to believe that smoking is harmful is weak. We do not know people’s belief. Can you know what people have in their minds, hearts and feelings? No. You just look at actions.
- Belief is a personal relationship, not to judge about an ideology or religion.
Learning the nature of the religion is different from learning it from the community of the followers of the religion. This is all missed among people. Muslims organize lots of activities to show they are good people but that is not the way to represent what Islam is. Starting point is wrong i.e. presenting the action.
- By presenting the action, you cannot present religion.
- You need to first present the fundamental teachings.
You may or may not represent Islam that is your responsibility, and that should not be confused with what Islam itself is. If you want to present the ideology of what Islam is, you have the freewill to present it according to the teachings of the Quran. You may or may not do it that is up to you.
Comments: Prophet was the walking and talking Quran.
You are expected to represent it correctly, you may you may not. Firstly, understand religion for yourself, make it acceptable for yourself, get your own evidence and present Islam with your evidence. Secondly, you have the freewill and you may represent what Islam says or not. That is your responsibility.
Present Islam as it is. What is missing there is that you are expected to represent what you believe. That is why the Quran asks to take care of your responsibility. Watch out for your freewill, you may or may not represent Islam correctly. You must know why you are a Muslim, what convinced you to become a Muslim and present this evidence to the people that Islam is this. Not to confuse between Islam and Muslim. Islam needs to be presented as it is, Muslims are human beings and they have freewill, they may represent and not represent.
It is narrated that the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) encouraged the Muslims in certain matters and non-Muslims in another matter. Muslims are expected to learn the Quran and practice it while the non-Muslims are expected to follow the rules of the treaty i.e. “Do not attack me and I shall not attack you.”
Make a distinction between “an ideology” and “follower of an ideology”. If they cannot really disqualify a person, they make a trap on his/her conduct. Is the ideology right or wrong? Do not look at the person, listen to the ideology. We should not judge a person’s ideology according to his behavior.
The Quran and the Prophet encourage one to be consistent with one’s belief system. That is, they guide people with their usage of freewill. It is all about psychological analysis of human behavior. Why do you do something? Convince yourself with this evidence addressing to human freewill. That is, educating the human psyche by addressing the freewill. I am free to use my freewill, for example to learn to ride a bike. I am free to learn and not to learn. Quran is just full of advice to human beings on how to use their freewill. Take yourself as a guide.
Example: This is the evidence for the existence of hereafter. It means it is an offer to me to take notice of this by using my freewill.
If you want to understand a religion, you should not expect a community to represent this religion. We need to understand Jesus’s saying (a tree is known by its fruits) as a personal responsibility, it is an advice to people to practice what they believe in their personal lives. I am an apricot tree, and I have to use my freewill to show apricot on my tree.
Bottom line, you cannot learn Islam from people’s behavior.